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Post by danaceks on Aug 7, 2023 21:38:15 GMT -5
Hey Millionaire( )fans, I’m from the Czech Republic and I’ve pretty much grown up on watching Czech Millionaire ("Chcete být milionářem?" actually translates as "Do you want to be millionaire?"), despite it airing only between 2000 and 2005. That’s because it was so popular at the beginning that Nova (the TV channel) has been airing it pretty much ever since on their sub-channel for legacy shows. They’ve made a very unsuccessful revival in 2016 but more on that later. This place seems to be right to share this thought I’ve always wanted to with someone who 1) is not from the Czech Republic, 2) cares at least the smallest little bit. When I was watching Millionaire as a kid, I was completely isolated from the fact that Millionaire existed outside the Czech Republic (not to mention its British origins). The reason why I’m writing this "Final answer philosophy" however is that Czech Millionaire had one significant difference in its gameplay – it was not the player locking in the answers but the host, no "final answer" phrase was therefore needed. This was in combination with the host’s (Vladimír Čech) incredible charm, meaning that more time was spent at individual questions. You would simply have to convince him to lock in the answer. On one hand this meant Nova could save money, on the other hand the game felt much more tense and had a much more fun feel to it. Millionaire therefore became incredibly popular and most (literally!) inhabitants would watch it when it was airing during its popularity peak. Nova however became greedier and greedier, and they swapped the host for another one, destroying our version’s unique feel, and that lead to its slow but steady demise. They actually “misused” this during the game’s brief revival in 2016 – again, more on that later. This is what shocked me when I watched foreign Millionaire for the first time. It was actually the John Carpenter video from U.S. Millionaire, and I felt like "Why didn’t the host hold the answer for a moment? That ruins everything!"... Honestly, that’s why I didn’t really enjoy Regis Philbin as a host. He was a good man and watching Millionaire hosted by him is still great, but it simply lacks the tension. Meredith Viera would at least hold the answer locked in for a second, giving it at least a bit of my desired gameplay tension, but Regis would simply confirm it immediately. The other thing is that no one’s ever won the jackpot here, not even the 14th question, only two people answered the 13th question correctly, but that’s more about Nova being greedy and making the questions way too difficult (syndicated U.S. Millionaire?) than about the altered gameplay itself. In 2016, shortly after Vladimír Čech died, Nova announced a new series of Millionaire that would be hosted by Marek Vašut. This was however very short-lived as he would waffle about very boring things and hold even the first few questions for very long, meaning it would always take more than five minutes to get through the first five questions, despite the contestants knowing all the answers immediately. A lot of people – including me – were looking forward to this new series, but it was simply unwatchable. To give you a sense of scale, the fourth episode ran for 75 minutes and only two contestants got to sit in the hot seat, each only getting up to the 9th question, not even reaching the second safety net. If you were interested, it’s very well explained in comprehensive detail here: chcetebytmilionarem-4fan-cz.translate.goog/870?_x_tr_sch=http&_x_tr_sl=cs&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en#more-870http://So, after all that, what do you think about this altered gameplay? It makes the game much more fun in my opinion (and you at least avoid the things like “C, final answer *music* Sorry, I meant D!!!”) but it shouldn’t be “misused”. If you got this far, thank you for your precious time you spent by reading this paper…  Greetings from The Heart of Europe, Daniel About what you were saying with the final answer pause being too short after the first milestone, I think that may have been Chris Tarrant's only flaw when he hosted the show. He was a great host in all other ways though. Well it would pretty much depend on his feelings. Sometimes he'd hold, sometimes he'd release a high-end question fairly instantly. As far as I'm concerned, Nova actually insisted on the pause to be longer, which is good, whereas I feel like it's mostly up to the hosts' decisions in other countries... |
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Post by danaceks on Aug 7, 2023 21:41:33 GMT -5
Ah okay, good to know the others. You know what, comparing the Rave music to a nightclub is actually pretty apt. They basically just took the original cues and added some nonsensual... whatever it was to the background and it feels really grim and actually quite hyperactive... The questions in the Shuffle format were way too difficult, that's the other thing. I just liked the idea... Do we even know what went wrong with U.S. Millionaire hosted by Jimmy Kemmel? Reminds me of the description of the Rave era music on UKGameshows.com ("The theme music was seemingly remixed for a nightclub..."). I think it still worked though, especially with the later graphics of Turkey, Poland and the Netherlands. (My favourite out of the Rave graphics is probably Poland; it just looked more polished than its predecessors). Yes, I actually don't mind Polish Rave Millionaire that much, but I'm happy an Olga era is coming there too 😌 |
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Post by CycloneBoom on Aug 9, 2023 16:53:54 GMT -5
Interesting topic, and I agree with the key points raised. Just a few thoughts to add...
I believe the final answer (especially for higher level questions), it indeed is a good opportunity to sustain dramatic tension before the answer is revealed. This was something Chris Tarrant was always brilliant at, complete with his stone-walled facial expressions. I think he enjoyed this too, and that's why he was so talented at it.
He'd often give nothing away until the answer reveal, leading in with phrasing like: "You had £64,000 and you didn't have to play this question. <Pause> There's no other way to say this... It's the right answer!"
Other hosts have done well at this too, notably Mino Monta from the Japanese version of the show. I think a lot of it depends on the contestant's portrayed confidence too. If they're absolutely adamant what the right answer is, there's no real sense in dragging it out needlessly. Also the timing of commercial breaks can follow a similar pattern for a suspenseful intermission. This seems like something the directors of the show keep closely in mind.
On the theme of final answer confirmation, the classic UK episodes with Chris Tarrant had the low tier Q1-Q5 questions not requiring a "final answer?" confirmation. The contestant would often simply state their choice, before it'd be instantly locked in and promptly revealed. Nowadays even on the early questions, there's been times Jeremy Clarkson has kept reminding contestants to say final answer, even though it's quite clear for their intentions.
I believe as an avoidance of doubt it's a good policy, although when intent is already clear, those first questions can flow more swiftly otherwise.
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Post by greekmillionairefan on Aug 11, 2023 1:02:00 GMT -5
Regarding the greek version, on Spyros Papadopoulos era ,host didn't require from the player to say a word of confirmation.On easier questions he would lock answer immediately, on the more difficult ones he would ask the player what's his final word. The same happened on 2006 season by Thodoris Atheridis. Since the launch of Hot seat format in 2014,it was required for the player to say the word "κλειδώνω" (lock it in) to confirm the answer. Even if a player had given an answer within the time limits but forgot to say the word "κλειδώνω" and then the time ran out,the answer was not considered valid and he would lose.The same applies for 2022 classic format revival. Player should say "κλειδώνω" to validate his final answer.If player only picks an answer without saying "κλειδώνω",host will ask the player if he wishes to lock it in.
Another thing that has changed through passage of time is the way of right answer confirmation.On original seasons (1999-2006) and on Hot seat format (2014-16),host would often reveal the player's right or wrong answer, fractions of seconds before the right answer turned green. On current revival,host never reveals the correct answer before the computer.
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omran.dk
Ce sera mon dernier mot au moment venu !
Posts: 307
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Post by omran.dk on Aug 11, 2023 7:15:00 GMT -5
Regarding the greek version, on Spyros Papadopoulos era ,host didn't require from the player to say a word of confirmation.On easier questions he would lock answer immediately, on the more difficult ones he would ask the player what's his final word. The same happened on 2006 season by Thodoris Atheridis. Since the launch of Hot seat format in 2014,it was required for the player to say the word "κλειδώνω" (lock it in) to confirm the answer. Even if a player had given an answer within the time limits but forgot to say the word "κλειδώνω" and then the time ran out,the answer was not considered valid and he would lose.The same applies for 2022 classic format revival. Player should say "κλειδώνω" to validate his final answer.If player only picks an answer without saying "κλειδώνω",host will ask the player if he wishes to lock it in. Another thing that has changed through passage of time is the way of right answer confirmation.On original seasons (1999-2006) and on Hot seat format (2014-16),host would often reveal the player's right or wrong answer, fractions of seconds before the right answer turned green. On current revival,host never reveals the correct answer before the computer. Know that at the beginning of the launch of the French version in 2000 and that I will say until 2001, Jean-Pierre Foucault revealed the answer at the same time as the computer revealed like Spiros, and from 2001 he revealed the answer before the computer reveals it like Chris did. |
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Post by danaceks on Aug 16, 2023 8:42:37 GMT -5
Interesting topic, and I agree with the key points raised. Just a few thoughts to add...
I believe the final answer (especially for higher level questions), it indeed is a good opportunity to sustain dramatic tension before the answer is revealed. This was something Chris Tarrant was always brilliant at, complete with his stone-walled facial expressions. I think he enjoyed this too, and that's why he was so talented at it.
He'd often give nothing away until the answer reveal, leading in with phrasing like: "You had £64,000 and you didn't have to play this question. <Pause> There's no other way to say this... It's the right answer!"
Other hosts have done well at this too, notably Mino Monta from the Japanese version of the show. I think a lot of it depends on the contestant's portrayed confidence too. If they're absolutely adamant what the right answer is, there's no real sense in dragging it out needlessly. Also the timing of commercial breaks can follow a similar pattern for a suspenseful intermission. This seems like something the directors of the show keep closely in mind.
On the theme of final answer confirmation, the classic UK episodes with Chris Tarrant had the low tier Q1-Q5 questions not requiring a "final answer?" confirmation. The contestant would often simply state their choice, before it'd be instantly locked in and promptly revealed. Nowadays even on the early questions, there's been times Jeremy Clarkson has kept reminding contestants to say final answer, even though it's quite clear for their intentions.
I believe as an avoidance of doubt it's a good policy, although when intent is already clear, those first questions can flow more swiftly otherwise.
Well yes, but it would pretty much depends on Chris' feelings at that moment. Sometimes he held a 16 000 question for much longer than a 250 000 afterwards. And yes, not strictly requiring contestants' final answer in the first phase is okay I guess... |
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Post by danaceks on Aug 16, 2023 9:02:59 GMT -5
Regarding the greek version, on Spyros Papadopoulos era ,host didn't require from the player to say a word of confirmation.On easier questions he would lock answer immediately, on the more difficult ones he would ask the player what's his final word. The same happened on 2006 season by Thodoris Atheridis. Since the launch of Hot seat format in 2014,it was required for the player to say the word "κλειδώνω" (lock it in) to confirm the answer. Even if a player had given an answer within the time limits but forgot to say the word "κλειδώνω" and then the time ran out,the answer was not considered valid and he would lose.The same applies for 2022 classic format revival. Player should say "κλειδώνω" to validate his final answer.If player only picks an answer without saying "κλειδώνω",host will ask the player if he wishes to lock it in. Another thing that has changed through passage of time is the way of right answer confirmation.On original seasons (1999-2006) and on Hot seat format (2014-16),host would often reveal the player's right or wrong answer, fractions of seconds before the right answer turned green. On current revival,host never reveals the correct answer before the computer. Know that at the beginning of the launch of the French version in 2000 and that I will say until 2001, Jean-Pierre Foucault revealed the answer at the same time as the computer revealed like Spiros, and from 2001 he revealed the answer before the computer reveals it like Chris did. And to this point once again - I remember Regis would reveal the answer instantly if the knew it by heart, making it even worse. The single only moment I truly appreciate is this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFXO7TBgANA |
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Post by danaceks on Aug 16, 2023 9:06:48 GMT -5
Another thing is forgot to mention is that I like how Czech Millionaire does not use the lights down effect after a contestant wins FFF. As you can see at youtu.be/XWmfxHKrO0g?t=1229, the FFF winning music directly transitions to explaining rules and the lights down effect is first used before Q1. This is what I didn't like about U.S. Millionaire with Jimmy Kemmel because the lights down effect was overused. |
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Post by greekmillionairefan on Aug 18, 2023 2:54:40 GMT -5
Apart from 2000-2005 and 2016-17 seasons that you mention on the first post,I have seen on wikipedia that there was also a 2008 season on another channel. What about this? Did it go well or it flopped like the recent revival? Regarding the fact that it lived for only a few months,I suppose it didn't manage to gain a great deal of viewers attention |
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Post by danaceks on Aug 19, 2023 8:31:33 GMT -5
Apart from 2000-2005 and 2016-17 seasons that you mention on the first post,I have seen on wikipedia that there was also a 2008 season on another channel. What about this? Did it go well or it flopped like the recent revival? Regarding the fact that it lived for only a few months,I suppose it didn't manage to gain a great deal of viewers attention Well, no. I didn't even mention is as it was fairly trashy too. The Millionaire spirit started to disappear quite quickly after Čech was replaced. The second and third hosts would be removed in a short time too. I think they did realize they'd made a mistake, but didn't want to admit it. They might have just revived the original format and pretty much everyone could have been happy. Then TV Prima tried to seize the opportunity but to no avail - the winning amounts were much lower and the programme didn't have much popularity. It therefore ended the same year it started. |
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